Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many assaults on (a) prisoners and (b) prison staff there were (i) in HM Prison Lewes and (ii) on average in all adult prisons in each of the last three years. [180475]

Jeremy Wright, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Prison Officers Association (POA) are jointly committed to a zero tolerance approach to assaults on staff, visitors and prisoners.

NOMS takes the issue of assaults in prisons very seriously. It currently has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution.

NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is tackled in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently looking at the policy and practice of the management of violence.

There are a number of factors that affect the number of assault incidents at any individual establishment. These include, but are not restricted to, the size of the population held at the prison, the type and role of the prison and the gender of the prisoners accommodated.
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For example, younger, male prisoners are more likely to be involved in an assault than other prisoners. Differences in population size of establishments mean it would not necessarily be correct to conclude that a prison with a higher number of incidents than the average is a less safe prison; nor that a prison with a lower number of incidents than the average is a safer prison.

Statistics on the number of assaults on staff for each prison establishment are published on an annual basis in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin, published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics

They can be found in Table 3.15 of the annual tables accompanying each quarterly release.

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